Bartleby the Scrivener

Any parent who names their child Bartleby is simply setting them up for a life of awkward.

I think I shall now attempt to delve into question 8: "what motivates bartleby's behavior? Why do you think Melville withholds the information about the Dead Letter Office until the end of the story? Does this background adequately explain Bartleby?"

Bartleby sounds like a classic case of depression. He is not angry, nor is he sad. He simply goes about his work of scrivening, mindlessly copying legal documents. His greatest indication towards depression is his severe lack of motivation. He performs the task required of him, but refuses to do anything else, from walking to the post office, to walking to the next room to summon Nippers. He does not divulge any information about his past, implying that he feels cut off from other people. Eventually he loses the motivation to work, and even to live. He gives up on life, and stops eating, and eventually just starves.

So what caused his depression? It probably has something to do with that Dead Letter Office then, I bet. The Dead Letter Office was the office of the United States Postal Service that took all letters that were deemed undeliverable and disposed of them in order to respect the sender's privacy. One could certainly view that as a depressing job. One takes in letters, conversations between loved ones that will never be, professions of love and might never be read, information meant to brighten a day or save a life that instead ends up in a furnace. Such a depressing atmosphere would surely weigh down on poor Bartleby until it eventually just crushed his spirit, and he became the man of few words that we know and love.

You now understand the meaning of "Going Postal."

Hunters in the Snow

While reading this story, all I could think about was "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" Naturally Tub was Cartman, and I got a very Stan-ish vibe from Frank.

I shall now address question 3: "How do plot and characterization work together in this story?" The first fun plot twist is Kenny's little shooting spree. He shoots a post, a tree, a dog, and appears to be considering shooting Tub as well. This gives the character the sense that Kenny is a bit of a jerk, one who makes rash decisions, and is not quite entirely mentally stable. Tub is also developed in that he decides it is a much safer decision to shoot his friend than to use words or step out of the line of fire. Tub apparently lacks trust and thinks very little of his friends, at this point apparently.

Next up in the plotline, it is revealed that the farmer fellow asked Kenny to shoot the dog, apparently, which actually changes Kenny's image from crazy gun nut to quasi-compassionate gun nut. Tub now appears to be the slightly crazy one. Obviously Kenny wasn't really going to shoot him, I mean obviously. At least that's how it appears to the reader.

Also, Frank and Tub have some Man Talk male bonding time in the bar and the roadhouse. Frank declares that he is in love with a 15 year old girl. I'll just go ahead and say that this little plot twist alone just makes Frank seem awkward. Maybe the author is just trying to say something adorable like "love is blind," blah blah blah, love can still tell age. Tub also has a little spill-the-guts session, and declares that his obesity problem is not actually glandular, but that he actually just eats too much. Shocker. This development leads to a knew side of Tub, not that he doesn't like being fat, but that he just doesn't care for being dishonest.

However, all of these little character development moments in the plot pale in comparison to the overall plot as a whole: Frank and Tub go to a bar and eat pancakes while their friend is dying in the backseat of the truck. And also cold.

According to Kenny, these cure gunshot wounds.

Everyday Use

This story is ridiculous. If I decided I would change my name to Patrick Conor McO'Brien, become a potato farmer, develop an affinity for Guinness, and call anyone I don't care for a Knobjockey so that I can reconnect with the heritage of my ancestors, most people would think I was being quite silly. I am not Irish. I am American. I did not ask to be American; it is simply the culture that has been placed upon me, just the same as any other American, regardless of their fleshy hue. Our heritage and culture is American. Dee should embrace the heritage of her real, true family, not that of her ancestors from centuries ago.

Rant over.

Wants the point of this story? I haven't the foggiest. Here's something I picked up on. Dee/Wangero feels the need to define herself and her heritage with tangible objects: the quilts, the butter churn, and the dasher. She places a great emphasis on material possessions, she can't remember her family without something real, something actual. Maggie is of course the direct foil to this; she states simply "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts." Maggie doesn't need anything actual, she just needs memories. So, since Dee/Wangero is portrayed as a generally obnoxious, bossy, and unlikeable character, this certainly seems to imply that the author is condemning a culture that places emphasis on material objects as opposed to human interaction.

This blog post is Brilliant!

All Three stories

I suppose here I'll try to find an underlying thread between the three stories. It's likely that I'll simply end up trying way too hard and going far beyond the cone of meaning, but hey, that's what blogs are for, amiright?

I think the three stories are all really about seeking to improve ones life. In How I met my Husband, at the end of the story, we see that Edie decides that she cannot simply go through life waiting for Chris Watters to come back. She decides to simply quit passively breezing through life and takes and active stance in her happiness. She picks a new fella, and she improves her position in life. Mr. Kapasi also tries to fix his fairly unfulfilling life. His wife is indifferent towards him and he feels unappreciated at his job as an interpreter. Therefore, he takes an active choice to improve his life by seeking a relationship with the lovely Mrs. Das. Now he seems to sway between a relationship as pen pals and one of potential lovers, but either way, he hopes that this connection with another person will make him happier and improve his life. And the lovely Miss Emily also seeks to fix her issues in life, although in my humble opinion, her methods of improving her life are just bizarre. Her father constantly drove various male suitors away, so naturally she seeks to remedy this situation by finding a man and never ever letting him leave. ever. She killed him, is basically what I'm saying. But hey, it made her feel better, which I would certainly classify as seeking to improve one's life. I don't exactly agree with it, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

These are limes. They float in water, and thus serve as my particular boat's flotation and buoyancy system. I am trying way too hard.

A Rose for Emily

This story is a bit odd. I shall answer question 5: What are the advantages of first-person plural point of view in this story? What would be lost if it were told in first-person singular, by one of the townspeople or in third-person limited point of view. First-person plural (or "we") is certainly an odd point of view that one does not see often. The effect here is to show Emily as a bit of a legend. The entire town is talking about her, not just a single person. If only one person told the story, then it would lose this effect of seeming like her very presence effected the entire town. Similarly, if the point of view was from Emily's perspective, either third or first person, then the focus of the story would be primarily on what she does, the actual acts she commits, rather than how it is here where the focus is mostly on her reasoning for her actions. We would lose this sense with any other point of view, but because we see this through the eyes of the townspeople, we are able to get that "legendary" sense while also seeing her reasons.

This rose is for Emily. She received no other roses in the story.

Interpreter of Maladies

I'll take this opportunity to just say that Mr. Kapasi's life just kind of blows. He works a job where he feels unappreciated, he has virtually no feelings for his wife, and he just seems generally unhappy with his position. However, he does seem to take an active effort in making his life better, as is evident from his working tours, which he thoroughly enjoys, to chasing a potential relationship with Mrs. Das. However, that last part didn't really work out well, which brings me to my question from the book: How does Mr. Kapasi's job as an interpreter of maladies relate to the action in this story? Does he have the occasion to use his diagnostic ability in his interactions with the Das family?

Mr. Kapasi may be good at interpreting language, but he is definitely not good at interpreting nonverbal communication. I would have likely categorized Mrs. Das's questions toward him as polite banter which was most likely said in order to avoid boredom on a very long car trip. Mr. Kapasi interpreted this as flirting and naturally assumed that she wanted hook up. However, this is not really the case, after all. She ends up spilling the beans on a huge secret she's kept, and he attempts to interpret what it means, but she doesn't particularly like his answer and runs off all upset. So to answer the question, yes he does interpret various situations, but not very well at all.

The monkeys have apparently transitioned from tools to weaponry.

How I met My Husband

I shall now write my own story to represent my feelings towards this particular tale. It is called "Jeffrey's Trip to the Zoo."

Little Jeffrey woke up one day and decided he was going to go to the zoo. So he set aside a date when he would skip school and go to the zoo. Then he got a map of the zoo and planned out his exact route so that he could make it through the zoo in one day and get to see all the animals. Then he did all sorts of chores around the house so that he could earn the money to go there. His excitement just kept building until finally the day came!

But then he got sick and decided not to go.

Fourteen years later, he got a job at the zoo as a poop-shoveler. He shoveled poop for the rest of his life until he died and was eaten by one of the elephants he cared for.

The End.

To say that How I met my Husband is misleading is practically and understatement. The vast majority of the story seems to build up Chris Watters. Oh yeah, the protagonist is going to meet her husband in this story! I bet it's Christ Watters, the mysterious and terribly dashing pilot fellow. Oh yeah, things are heating up now, they're totally gonna get hitched. Wait, no, mailman, what? yeah, misleading. However, there's two points to this, I suppose. Firstly, nobody should just wait around for something to happen. Edie was waiting around for Chris to contact her but eventually gave up because she can't, and shouldn't have to, wait around forever. If there's something you want, go get it; don't wait around for it to happen. Secondly, it would be boring if they ended up together. Anybody could have called that. It's a story about meeting her husband, I bet she's going to meet her husband at some point, and Chris Watters is the only prominent male character, really. It's more interesting this way, and also sort of implies that the author is saying that generally things don't go as planned. The reader just cruises along the story, anticipating the obvious ending, and the author just smacks them down "HA! this is the real world, fool!" At least that's how I imagine things happen. It's probably not very accurate.

You ate Jeffrey!